The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistf ight in Heaven 141is the religious education of their children. As the
family patriarch and as a minister, Mr. March takes
the condition of his daughters’ souls seriously and is
primarily responsible for ensuring that his daugh-
ters become Christian women. This becomes most
apparent during Beth’s last illness, in which her
“Father and Mother guided her tenderly through
the valley of shadow, and gave her up to God.” Faced
with a family crisis, Mr. March looks to his faith to
keep the family strong and together.
Although Beth’s death casts a shadow over the
family, the novel is firm in the idea that life goes on.
The surviving girls go on to marry and have families
of their own, and Meg, Jo, and Amy soon discover
the challenges new parents face. Yet Marmee and
Father remain important figures in their daughters’
lives, helping to shape the new mothers into suc-
cessful parents. Particularly in the chapters dealing
with Meg and the twins, the novel shows the girls
adopting the techniques of their parents to become
loving, responsible mothers. Family takes central
importance in Little Women, and by detailing the
parenting styles of Mr. and Mrs. March, the novel
illustrates both the importance of parenting and
how to parent well.
Cheryl Blake Price
ALEXIE, SHERMAN The Lone Ranger
and Tonto Fistf ight in Heaven (1993)
Sherman Alexie (b. 1966) describes The Lone Ranger
and Tonto Fistf ight in Heaven as “a thinly disguised
memoir” in his introduction to the book’s 10th
anniversary edition. It certainly is, though less self-
consciously so than more formal autobiographies.
The book is a series of episodes: short, insightful
explorations of contemporary Native American life.
Set on a reservation in the Pacific Northwest, Lone
Ranger and Tonto includes recurring characters such
as Victor, the angry grown-up child of alcoholics
whose life never seems to be on track; Thomas, a
storyteller and outcast; and Junior, a kind, gener-
ous underachiever. These stories are never uplifting,
though they are not without hope. They are never
generous, though not without promise. They are
never kind, though not without sympathy. Alexie’s
tales are stories, in the best sense and in the classic
poetic tradition. They show us, always outsiders and
after the fact, a world we cannot touch or even truly
understand. And he speaks to us intentionally. He
is a voice in our wilderness whose prophetic speech
warns of our collective ignorance. We are introduced
to his world through myths culled from life as he
knows it: boys whose basketball days are over before
they begin, men whose lives cannot reach beyond
the boundaries imposed upon them, women who
are alone even when they are with their companions.
The stories comprise a totality, an impression of a
life condemned and still struggling for a voice, one
who can only find hope in the words that make it
off the reservation.
Aaron DruckerabandOnment in The Lone Ranger and Tonto
Fistf ight in Heaven
The narrator calls the mother of his child a year or
so after he left. Or maybe he does not. It depends
on which version of the story you believe. There are
several: some in passing, others consuming the nar-
rative. All are true; none are true. It does not really
matter whether he picked up the phone, the leaving
is real just the same. “The Lone Ranger and Tonto
Fistfight in Heaven” is a story about leaving. The
titular story of Sherman Alexie’s collection, it tells
the story of the end of the narrator’s relationship
with the outside world, his coming home after the
failures of college and relationships, and the finality
of indecision. Abandonment is not, as some might
think, an act of will, the assertion made by a final
choice. Abandonment is the slow disintegration of
the connections through too many inactions, too
many failures to choose, of not deciding, of not
doing. Abandonment is the natural consequence of
ambivalence.
The memory the narrator shares is sparked by a
Creamsicle, given to him by a 7-11 night manager:
“[T]hose little demonstrations of power tickled
him. All seventy-five cents of it. I knew how much
everything cost.” Everything has a price. The narra-
tor is torn between his life in the city, the desire to
assimilate and succeed, and his history—the Indian
off the reservation, lost in the oppressive, commer-
cial white world. The desire to succeed in the city is
palpable; the drive toward gentrification is tangible.